Blog:Socialist Kia owners

There was an article in this week’s Sunday Times newspaper that links choice of car to political voting intention. They mapped out car brands and propensity to vote Conservative or Labour (the two main political parties here). Perhaps it isn’t all that surprising that luxury brand owners tend to go for the Conservatives (often described as right of centre, once considered the party for effete ‘toffs’, but gained populist appeal under Mrs Thatcher) with the mass-market brands gravitating towards Labour (left of centre, once known as ‘socialists’ but tend to be embarrassed by that word these days).

Slap bang in the middle is the Land Rover Freelander apparently. So ‘Freelander Woman’ replaces ‘Mondeo Man’ as the symbolic centre floating voter battleground, according to the report. Hmm.

Anyway, what interested me was the position of the brands at the end of the propensity to vote Labour axis (well come on, Jaguar emerging as the most Conservative-orientated brand is hardly all that surprising). There was a bit of clustering – Fiat, Proton, Vauxhall and Daewoo. Yes, those brands go down well in value-driven working-class heartlands I’m sure. But the clear ‘winner’ as most likely to deliver a Labour vote and less likely a Conservative one was…Kia. So there’s a tip for the Labour canvassers – don’t bother with the houses/flats with Kia cars parked outside: they probably already vote Labour!

Given the startling complexity of obtaining a journalist visa for China - the code 'J2' is now indelibly stamped on my mind - it was with some surprise how swiftly I managed to sail through airport im...